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A WebCenter Portal Configuration

The main configuration files for WebCenter Portal applications are adf-config.xml and connections.xml. This appendix describes both these files, how to locate them, and also when to configure these files and which tools to use. Other configuration files, such asweb.xml and webcenter-config.xml are described here too. See also, Section 1.3.5, "WebCenter Portal Configuration Considerations."

This appendix also outlines how to tune configuration properties for the operating system on which WebCenter Portal applications are installed, as well as WebCenter Portal applications and their back-end components.

A.1 Configuration Files

adf-config.xml, connections.xml, and web.xml are used to configure all WebCenter Portal applications (including Spaces) and their back-end services. In addition, the webcenter-config.xml configuration file, which is specific to the Spaces application, is used to configure application-wide settings.

This section describes how WebCenter Portal applications use each file and the location of these files post deployment. This section includes the following subsections:

A.1.1 adf-config.xml and connections.xml

adf-config.xml and connections.xml both store design time configuration information, such as the discussions server, mail server, or content server that is used by the WebCenter Portal application in the development environment:

adf-config.xml - Stores application-level settings, such as which discussions server or mail server the WebCenter Portal application is currently using.

After you deploy a WebCenter Portal application to a production environment, Oracle recommends that you use Fusion Middleware Control or WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) commands to reconfigure properties in these files. For example, you may want to modify connection details to point to production server instances. See also, Appendix A, "Configuration Tools".

The main advantage of using Fusion Middleware Control and WLST commands is that any configuration changes that you make, post deployment, are stored as customizations in the WebCenter Portal application's Oracle Metadata Services (MDS) repository. MDS uses the original deployed versions of adf-config.xml and connections.xml as base documents and stores all subsequent customizations separately into MDS using a single customization layer. If the application is redeployed in the future, all previous configuration changes are retained.

When a WebCenter Portal application starts up, application customizations stored in MDS are applied to the appropriate base documents and the WebCenter Portal application uses the merged documents (base documents with customizations) as the final set of configuration properties.

Post deployment, always use Fusion Middleware Control or WLST commands to review the latest configuration or make configuration changes. In Fusion Middleware Control you will mostly use WebCenter Portal application configuration screens but a useful Systems MBean Browser is also available for reviewing configuration settings. These tools always show you the current configuration so, typically, there is no need for you to examine or change the content of base documents or MDS customization data for files such as adf-config.xml and connections.xml.

At times it might be useful to 'see' the information in MDS. If for any reason you must extract or examine configuration file customizations that are stored in MDS, use the WLST command exportMetadata.

For example, to determine MDS customizations for connections.xml in a Spaces application, which always has the application name webcenter and is deployed to the WC_Spaces managed server, the file name and location is always /META-INF/mdssys/cust/adfshare/adfshare/connections.xml.xml, you might specify:

You choose where to save file customizations by specifying toLocation. If, for example, toLocation is set to /tmp/mydata, then the requested file is saved to /tmp/mydata/META-INF/mdssys/cust/adfshare/adfshare.

If no customizations exist for the requested file, then nothing is saved to the specified location—previously extracted customizations at the same location are not overwritten.

Handling Configuration Conflicts

MDS customizations use references to elements in the base document to call out which elements must be inserted/deleted/replaced, and at what location. If an element is inadvertently removed from a future redeployment and MDS contains a reference to that element, then the WebCenter Portal application's configuration appears corrupt.

For example, consider a WebCenter Portal application built using JDeveloper called MyPortalApp, with a connection, created at design-time, called myconnection. The application was deployed to a managed server, and a URL in myconnection was modified. This modification is stored in MDS as a customization instruction to update myconnection to use the new URL. If in the future, myconnection is removed at design time and the application redeployed using the same MDS details, a configuration conflict occurs, that is, the customization instruction in MDS attempts to find myconnection but no such configuration exists.

You are unlikely to face this problem but should a previously deployed application appear corrupt after making changes to adf-config.xml or connections.xml you have the following options:

Redeploy the EAR file on a new partition or a partition where older customizations are deleted. In either case, all data previously stored in MDS for the application is lost, including any application customizations for adf-config.xml or connections.xml, and all user customizations. You must reconfigure your application from scratch too, using Fusion Middleware Control or WLST.

Reconfigure your application from scratch using Fusion Middleware Control or WLST.

A.1.2 web.xml

web.xml is a standard J2EE application deployment descriptor file and it is located in the /META-INF directory for your application. Typical run-time settings in web.xml include initialization parameters, custom tag library locations, and security settings.

Note: In the Spaces application, you use the uploadedFileMaxDiskSpace parameter in webcenter-config.xml to configure a maximum upload size for files. For details, see Appendix A, "webcenter-config.xml".

Unlike connections.xml and adf-config.xml, web.xml does not store post deployment customizations in MDS. Also, you cannot use Fusion Middleware Control or WLST to modify web.xml in an existing WebCenter Portal application deployment.

If you must modify settings in web.xml follow the appropriate instructions for your application:

At startup, this automatically deploys the newer application with the modified web.xml.

Caution:

Future Spaces patches will overwrite this configuration change, so you must remember to repeat such configuration changes after patching, that is, you must obtain the latest webcenter.ear file and repeat these steps.

A.1.2.2 Editing web.xml Properties for WebCenter Portal Applications

Typically, when specific web.xml properties need to be modified, developers edit web.xml at design time, and regenerate the application's EAR file to include the new values.

webcenter-config.xml is created in MDS the first time you configure "General" settings through Spaces Administration. If the file does not yet exist in MDS you can edit webcenter-config.xml directly. The file is located at: /oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/webcenter-config.xml

Open webcenter-config.xml.xml exported from MDS in a text editor and add the following snippet, as required.

A.2 Cluster Configuration

All post deployment configuration through Fusion Middleware Control, WLST, or the Systems MBean Browser is stored as customizations in the MDS repository. In a cluster environment, since the MDS repository is shared across all nodes, all WebCenter Portal configuration changes done on one node are visible to all nodes in the cluster. To effect configuration changes that are not dynamic, all nodes in the cluster must be restarted. See also Section 8.2, "Starting and Stopping Managed Servers for WebCenter Portal Application Deployments".

In WebCenter Portal applications most configuration changes that you make, through Fusion Middleware Control or using WLST, are not dynamic. For example, when you add or modify connection details for WebCenter Portal's services (Analytics, Activity Graph, Announcements, Discussions, Documents, Events, Mail, Instant Messaging and Presence, Search, Worklists) you must restart the application's managed server.There are two exceptions; portlet producer and external application registration is dynamic. Any new portlet producers and external applications that you register are immediately available in your WebCenter Portal application and any changes that you make to existing connections take effect immediately too.

If you edit configuration files in a cluster environment, then you must ensure that identical changes are made in each cluster member so that the overall cluster configuration remains synchronized.

A.3 Configuration Tools

Oracle offers a range of tools for configuring Spaces and other WebCenter Portal application deployments. This section outline which tools are available.

Note:

Most WebCenter Portal configuration parameters are immutable and cannot be changed at run time unless otherwise specified.

Post deployment, always use Fusion Middleware Control or WebLogic Scripting Tool (WLST) commands to review the latest configuration or make configuration changes. In Fusion Middleware Control you will mostly use WebCenter Portal application configuration screens but a useful Systems MBean Browser is also available for reviewing and modifying configuration settings.

These tools always show you the current configuration so, typically, there is no need for you to examine or manually change the content of configuration files or MDS customization data for files such as adf-config.xml or connections.xml. If you use the same MDS details when you redeploy the application, all configuration performed using these tools is preserved.

What Configuration Tool to Use

You can use any tool for post-deployment configuration. However, if you intend to repeat the configuration steps multiple times, for example, when provisioning newer instances or for automation, screen-based configuration using tools such as Fusion Middleware Control becomes less efficient. In such cases, Oracle highly recommends that you write WLST scripts to perform the required configuration.

All WebCenter Portal configuration operations possible through Fusion Middleware Control are available using WebCenter Portal's WLST commands. You can also use WLST scripts to configure other components, for example, to deploy applications, create managed servers, set MDS properties for an application, configure data sources, and so on. If you want help to automate domain configuration, you can record configuration actions in the WLS Administration Console as a series of WLST commands and then use WLST to replay the commands. For more details on this topic, see "Recording WLST scripts" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Introduction to Oracle WebLogic Server.

Tip:

Where Oracle documentation describes steps in the WLS Administration Console, consider automating the process using the "Record" option.

Another way to configure deployment specific properties is through the WebCenter Portal application's deployment plan. Typical properties changed on deployment include:

While reconfiguration is possible this way, any metadata repository and ADF connection configuration changes that you make are not saved as part of the deployment plan, that is, they are saved in the archive that is deployed. Therefore, your configuration changes must be repeated on subsequent redeployments.

If you redeploy your application multiple times, Oracle recommends that you use Fusion Middleware Control or WLST commands to perform your post-deployment configuration. This way, configurations changes are saved in MDS and remain intact on redeployment.

A.5.3 Configuration Performed in One Application Reflects in Another

Problem

You configured a WebCenter Portal application, but those configurations also show in another application.

Solution

This happens when multiple applications share the MDS partition in the same schema. To resolve this problem, deploy these applications again and ensure that each application uses its own MDS schema and partition combination. For information about creating a MDS repository or configuring an existing WebCenter Portal application to use a different MDS repository or partition, see section "Managing the Oracle Metadata Repository" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Administrator's Guide.

A.5.4 Spaces Application Logs Indicate Too Many Open Files

Problem

Spaces is inaccessible or displaying error messages and the diagnostic log files indicates that there is an issue with 'too many open files'.

Solution

Do the following:

Check the number of file handles configured on each of the back-end servers, primarily the database, and increase appropriately.

If the problem persists after increasing the file handles, check the value of fs.file-max in the /etc/sysctl.conf file and increase the value appropriately.

A.6.1 None of the WebCenter Portal WLST Commands Work

If you attempt to run WebCenter Portal WLST commands from the wrong directory you will see a NameError.

No files other than Python are stored in the WLST source directory: WC_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst. This directory must contains files with the .py extension only.

The default set of files in this location contain legal Python files from Oracle. It is possible that a user copied some non-python script to this directory, for example, a backup file or a test python file with syntax errors.

webcenter-wlst.jar is located at WC_ORACLE_HOME/common/bin/wlst/lib.

A.6.2 WLST Commands Do Not Work for a Particular Service

Problem

You are unable to run WLST commands for a particular service, and therefore, you cannot configure that service.

A.6.3 A Connection with the Name Connection_Name Already Exists

Problem

You are unable to create a connection with the name connection_name. The following message displays:

A connection with name Connection_Name already exists.

Solution

Connection names are unique across WebCenter Portal applications. This error occurs when you try to create a connection with a name that is in use. Ensure that you use a unique name for your connection.

A.6.4 WLST Shell is Not Connected to the Oracle WebLogic Managed Server Instance

Problem

The WLST shell is not connected to the managed server on which you want to run WLST commands.

Solution

Run the following command to connect the WLST shell to the managed server:

A.6.5 Application with the Same Name Already Exists in a Domain

You are unable to register a producer application. The following message displays:

Another application named "YourApplicationName" exists. Specify the Server on which your application is deployed. Use: server="YourServerName".

Solution

There are multiple applications with the same name in the domain in which you are trying to register your application. This usually happens in a cluster environment, where the same application is deployed to multiple managed servers. If this is the case, specify the name of the server in which you are trying to register this application. For example, run the registerWSRPProducer WLST command with the server argument:

A.6.6 Application with the Same Name Already Exists on a Managed Server

Problem

You are unable to register a producer application. The following message displays:

Another application named "application_name" exists on the server managedServerName.

Solution

There are multiple applications with the same name on the managed server in which you are trying to register your application. This usually happens when applications are assigned different versions. If this is the case, specify the version of the application you want to register. For example, run the registerWSRPProducer WLST command with the arguments server and applicationVersion: